Teenager who ‘bulldozed’ a woman with his car after a minor traffic accident to be sentenced later

By Sonya McLean

A teenager who “bulldozed” a woman with his car after he had accidentally reversed into her vehicle while waiting to exit a busy shopping complex car park will be sentenced later.

Patrick O’Donnell (19) was waiting at the barriers of Dundrum Town Centre when he reversed and accidentally struck the vehicle behind.

Both drivers got out and O’Donnell offered to pay the woman for the damage rather than go through his insurance.

Garda Stephen Morley said the woman was concerned that she didn’t know how much the repair would cost and suggested that they go through the insurance.

She was on the phone calling the gardaí when O’Donnell got into his car and tried to drive away.

Gda Morley told Garrett Baker BL, prosecuting, the woman has a hazy recollection of what happened next, but CCTV footage shows that she stood in front of the vehicle in an effort to prevent O’Donnell from driving off.

O’Donnell continues to drive forward slowly, striking the woman a number of times, before his passenger gets out of the car in an effort to move her off completely.

The woman refuses to move and after his passenger returns to the car, O’Donnell moves his car before striking the woman a final time, causing her injuries, Gda Morley said.

O’Donnell of Abbottstown Avenue, Finglas, Dublin 11, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to the woman at Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin on December 15, 2020. He has no previous convictions.

Judge Melanie Greally asked to be shown the CCTV footage of the incident a second time after Gda Morley finished his evidence.

“What happened was outrageous,” the judge said “She (the victim) was doing the perfectly correct thing and it was evident that there were security staff. There were plenty of means by which it could have been appropriately dealt with”.

But she said O’Donnell “bulldozed” the woman, although she acknowledged he did drive slowly at first.

She said the woman was persistent in her desire to keep O’Donnell there and that what O’Donnell had done was “dangerous in the extreme”.

Judge Greally noted that the woman had pre-existing depression and anxiety and that she “has since suffered very acutely” in terms of her mental well-being.

She said that “many considerations need to be balanced” before she passes sentence in the case and apologised to the woman, who was present in court, that she could not deal with in straight away.

Judge Greally remanded O’Donnell on continuing bail and adjourned the case to May 17 next for the preparation of a report from the Probation Service.

She said in the meantime O’Donnell “should put his mind to obtaining employment” and getting some money together as a token of his remorse.

Gda Morley said the woman went to Wexford General Hospital the following day where she was found to have severe bruising around her eye and her eye was swollen closed for two weeks.

She suffered severe headaches that caused her to vomit and her pre-existing depression worsened.

The woman said in victim impact statement, partly read into the record by Mr Baker, that she found it hard to believe that “a young lad would do that” to her.

Gda Morley agreed with David Fleming BL, defending, that O’Donnell drove home to his mother immediately after leaving Dundrum and told her what had happened.

She told him to go straight to the garda station.

The garda agreed that he was still at Dundrum Town Centre himself, having responded to the call, when colleagues at Finglas Garda Station called him to say O’Donnell had arrived at their station to confess.

He accepted that O’Donnell had immediately offered the woman €100 for the damage in an attempt to avoid going through his insurance, but she was not happy with that.

“He then went down a series of errors and is now before the court in quite a lot of trouble,” Mr Fleming suggested.

Gda Morley agreed that the woman has also initiated a civil action for the injuries she sustained that day.

Mr Fleming said his client “panicked and just wanted to get out of there”.

“At no time did he want to hurt her. He wanted to give her a fright to get her to move and he has shown genuine remorse that he has hurt her,” counsel continued.

Mr Fleming said his client has since married. He said he was instructed to give an “unreserved apology” to the victim and said O’Donnell is “mortified” by his behaviour.